yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Xperia Arc General] gunawan-1:
Thanks for the information. For no.2, I am a little worry. I've ever seen adv campaign about taking picture in a box contains a ball with no light.and arc can do that.but mine can't.

GN Multimedia-Xperia Arc
[Xperia Arc General] sofia-captivate:
Does the arc have noise cancellation? And how it works when you make calls?
[Xperia Arc General] commodoor:
It has a second mic on the back and quality is good, wel the other side says it ;-)
[Xperia Arc General] thefunkyjoint:
Poor reception

Hello,

I'm having issues with poor 3G reception using the Arc ; my last phone, A milestone, had lot better receptions.

Is there a way to boost signal in Arc ? Software or hardware (hack ) ?

Thanks
[Xperia Arc General] commodoor:
I don't have problems with it. There is no "hack" to improve the signal. You have to wait for a update. There is soon coming a update maybe it will get better. Its not the os but the radio firmware that needs to get a update for that
[Xperia Arc General] _Ritesh_:
Color Confusion

Hi :) I don't know if this question has been asked earlier. Can anybody tell me what is difference between the BLACK and BLUE color handsets?? or are they the same :confused:
[Xperia Arc General] keyz86:
I can confirm that 32GB class 10 cards work :)
[Xperia Arc General] ajftl:
Had a patriot 16gb c10 worked for 2 weeks then ****er die. Lost alllll. Pics and music. Lol.
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
No USB-on-the-go!
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
What he said. -No USB OTG-

The Japanese model didn't come with SE's LiveWare app either.
[Xperia Arc General] zooyorkgolf:
About Sound Quality of headset ?

LED Notification have many color ?

THX!!
[Xperia Arc General] Nankov:
What i would like to know is..does it have a preinstalled screen protector like the x10 did?
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
The included headset sounds better than the usual stock earbuds you get with phones (these are the single flange in-ear types), but they're pretty weak for bass and they aren't entirely distortion free. Good enough for most people though, ie. if you aren't spending upwards of $30 for your current earphones.

The mic is pretty decent as far as I can tell, no problems whatsoever with people hearing me (you don't have to hold the mic to your mouth for it work etc).

The LED does have a variety of colours, but not all apps seem to be able to configure it. Updates should hopefully fix this.

I'm also not so sure I like the positioning of it, because as opposed to being on the face of the phone, it's on the side near the USB port which I find makes it harder to see/notice in most situations. If you use one of those TPU/Silicon etc covers then you probably won't be able to see it without looking for it specifically, which kind of defeats the purpose.

The Japanese one doesn't, no. Not the kind you'd want to keep on it anyway :D

It's worth mentioning though that most Japanese people buy a protector for their phone so they may have excluded it for this market only. The X10 when it was released in Japan didn't have a pre-installed protector either.
[Xperia Arc General] gackaass:
hi shutterspark :)

1- how is call-in volume ! X10 was a bit low

2- does it support Xvid/Divx ?? (important)
[Xperia Arc General] SKIBBE:
Beeing able to play 720p .x264 .mkv's seems more important if you ask me (now that we have an hdmi port)

there are many media players on the market suporting xvid/divx (and even mkv, let's home the cpu/gpu can play my mkv's) if not i will be very disapointed :(

i will not go thru the hussle and convert a movie everytime i whant to play it in my phone.
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
Rockplayer will be able to play MKV's and everything just fine. I think the Arc, Neo, Pro and Play have enough power to play most formats at 720p just fine.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
1: I've never been on the receiving end of a call on the X10 so I can't draw any comparisons, but the Arc's in-call volume isn't too bad. It's does seem a tad quieter at max than the SGS and Desire HD though. It could be a problem if you're in a noisy place but otherwise I don't think's a concern. Speaker phone is very loud.

2. SE's player doesn't support anything the default android player doesn't. Infact I suspect it's just a reskinned version. See below:

Yes Rockplayer will play almost any format you throw at it as long as it's not over 720p, and while 720p .mkv and xvid/divx files are a tad slower when seeking it's perfectly smooth during playback. The problem is Rockplayer doesn't support GPU processing for the file formats the default player can't handle, but that shouldn't be a problem for the majority of files that are 720p or lower.

If anyone has a specific file sample they want me to test for Rockplayer/SE's player, just upload it to somewhere like filedropper and I'll give it a try.
[Xperia Arc General] pksparks:
what sd card

what capacity has the micro sdcard? i see different cards mentioned. an any idea about release date in the netherlands??

rgds

Patrick
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
The capacity of the Micro SD card included with the phone will be depend very much on your region, along with whether you get the HDMI cable or not.

In Japan it's 16gb and it was decided by the carrier, but you should check with the carrier in your country on that one. The max capacity is 32gb class 6.
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
Pack for NL will include a 16GB MicroSD. Release = end of next week.

Pack for Belgium will include a 16GB MicroSD and a MicroHDMI cable. Release = somewhere in the first weeks of April.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
**Update

No root yet unfortunately. Anyone have any ideas?

Also, I thought I'd mention that Docomo has officially announced the Arc to be partially compatible with their LTE rollout in June.

It will support cat. 10 transfers over the existing 16-QAM modulation or theoretically 14Mbit/s down, as long as your carrier has the network for it.

I say this because GSM Arena and other sites have it down as 7.2Mbit/s.

http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_xperia_arc-3619.php

I suppose it could be that the Japanese version has a different chip version or firmware, but that makes little sense.
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
Arc can do 14Mbit, the MSM8255 is all that matters to get it.
[Xperia Arc General] Asahi77:
There is no ambient light sensor? I cant live without it, its perfect on my x1 as it can adjust brightness in few seconds after turning on display. :confused:
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
The sensor is in the spec sheet on most sites, but there's no option to use it. Hopefully this will be addressed later in an update, but for now it's not working.

Edit: There is definitely an ambient light sensor on the device, it's the small dot next to the proximity sensor (taken from the manual). I suppose this means SE will be adding the functionality later.

Also, an update regarding the screen: As awesome as it is, the contrast goes out the window when viewing at extreme angles, and this loss of contrast is visible even at what I would consider to be typical viewing angles.

It's not awful but it's not class leading either. On the plus side, the screen's auto-rotate works regardless of which way you turn it (both clockwise or counter clockwise) so it gives you a bit more freedom. Not terribly useful though.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
**An update regarding video playback.

I said earlier that 720p x264 and mkv files play fine on the device, but after further testing it seems to only work with certain files based on how they were encoded. So far only a handful of my 720p mkv files play smoothly, and even then it shows the occasional stutter.

This is disappointing. We need really GPU decoding in third party players, or for SE to include support for other containers and codecs in the default player.

I guess for now we'll have to stick with MP4.
[Xperia Arc General] Brumble:
Whats the shutter speed on the camera like?

Sent from my Defy
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
If you mean the shutter delay (as in delay after taking a shot), it's pretty quick compared to most phones with 5MP + resolution. You can get around 1fps if you maintain focus lock thoughout the sequence.

If you mean shutter lag (as in the time it takes to take the shot after you hit the button), assuming you already have focus lock it's pretty average (varies depending on ambient light). No way to put a number on it but I'd say at it's best it's responsive enough for anything outside of sport and bird photography.

Focus is very quick in good lighting, and surprisingly workable in low light/indoors.
[Xperia Arc General] kannanX10:
how abt 720p video recording framerate in indoor/low light conditions?

bcos x10 has around 14-15 frames in low light
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
No improvement there as far as I can see. Infact, during the quick test I did it stuttered a lot while trying to amp up the brightness with dramatic changes in lighting. (nothing notable running in the background).
[Xperia Arc General] PE4ce:
is there Arabic language support??

can you confirm it?

it's gonna look like this " العربية "

how much space available in the internal memory?

how many installed apps?
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Arabic language support is present. Infact this phone has incredible language support, with 9 (!) variations of English. :D

Memory available for applications will be around 320mb depending on what your carrier has chosen to preload onto your phone. With the function to move most applications (or at least a chunk of them) to SD card, I can't see most people having a problem with the storage (unless they like to keep a library of legacy games without SD card support).

And there's always Apps2SD/Apps2Ext if you need it.
[Xperia Arc General] kannanX10:
if possible will u be able to upload a 720p low light video sample?
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
This thread is getting long so I've added the answers to questions to the bottom of the first post for easier reference.
[Xperia Arc General] Ihor P.:
What is the price for this phone in your country?

Thx
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
It's listed as 48,720 JPY retail on Docomo in Japan.

For existing Docomo customers, it's 30,240 JPY for a 2 year contract, and 19,320 JPY for customers switching over from another carrier (also with a 2 year contract.

The phone is sold locked here, with no option to unlock.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Here you go:

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3 (Download Link)

Apologies for the mess :D

The videos aren't very good but they should give you an idea of what I mean, especially regarding the stuttering at the beginning of the 3rd sample when the camera is trying to adjust to the change in brightness when pointed at my monitor.

For the record, the ambient light in the recordings is dismal at around 18-35 lux.
[Xperia Arc General] kannanX10:
thanks a lot
[Xperia Arc General] gackaass:
by the way , do u see Farsi support in language list?

looks like dis : "فارسي " :D

always i thought japanese are excellent peopple :D now im pretty sure ...
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
I found a couple of other videos on youtube which can probably give you a much better indication of the recording capabilities than mine do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TTe6BpMCtc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nHwB7O0JYc&feature=related

It's there, along with many other languages I can't read :cool:
[Xperia Arc General] kannanX10:
i have seen those videos........but i feel somewhat better than x10
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Good to know there's some improvement. I'm no judge since I rarely capture video with phones ;)
[Xperia Arc General] kannanX10:
i definitely feel that 720p of arc is better than x10 in low light........will u able to upload any of those raw samples to mediafire or megaupload,so that i check some video specs......
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
I've uploaded sample 3 here: Download Link
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
**Update:

The phone has rebooted itself twice since I got it yesterday, presumably due to overheating. Both times it was on the charger (supplied cable) while I was running graphically intensive apps.

This has never happened on stock on any other android phone on that I've owned, so I'm a bit disappointed.
[Xperia Arc General] kannanX10:
checked it out,it has 27.95 frames,so its pretty good for a low light video
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
You probably have a faulty battery. If it does reboot itself again, take off the battery cover, check if the battery is hot, and if there's a somewhat burnt smell at the battery connectors. If you notice that, return your phone and explain everything and they should just provide you with a new phone or replace the mainboard. Don't you have like a 7 day return policy?
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
That's what I had initially suspected but unfortunately it looks like I'm not the only one with the problem. Twitter is full of posts from early adopters in Japan complaining about the Arc rebooting itself.

Let's hope this only affects a particular batch, or that it's something that can be fixed with an update. I'll contact SE about it.

Edit: I'm working on isolating the problem: Trying a factory reset and a different charger, and trying to get it to reboot itself while not plugged in.
[Xperia Arc General] upperwall1:
@Shutterspark

I thought docomo announced that they will unlocked all their handset.

Im planning to buy xperia arc in japan and use it here in the philippines then use local sim card. Is that possible? please reply, thanks in advance.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
According to what they have announced so far, they will offer the option to unlock your handset, but there are several conditions.

One of them is that the handset must have a release date AFTER April 1st, 2011, so unfortunately the Xperia Arc doesn't apply. In short, you won't be able to unlock it via Docomo.

Another thing is that prices aren't yet official but if you unlock your handset when you purchase it, you'll probably be ineligible for the handset discounts, making the phone much more expensive than usual. This isn't confirmed though.

P.S.

I figure you already know this but, buying a contract phone in Japan requires a 2 year contract and some form of proof of permanent residency and address so you'll need a way around that. Just to make life difficult, Docomo also has a rule that new contracts need to be tied to a bank account, and no banks here allow visitors to make accounts. Just incase ;)

Edit: More info here.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
**Update

While I reckon the low light photos are still pretty noisy, it looks like the Arc's Exmor-R sensor can take photos where other phones can't.

Samples
[Xperia Arc General] upperwall1:
@Shutterspark

Thanks a lot for the reply. Just a quick q, can i buy xperia arc there with out a 2 yr contract?
[Xperia Arc General] Lancez:
that is how a great thread starts, thanks for everything :)
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
No, unfortunately not. Assuming you have everything you need to get the contract, the only way around this is to buy the phone with the contract and then pay the 10,000ish JPY cancellation fee to break it.

Edit: According to my friend, they're out of stock for Blue in most stores here, and Silver is scarce. Just a heads-up.
[Xperia Arc General] HYPER-X10:
Why the Space Navigator? ;)
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
Re-read the first post (very interesting, good to read about some of the less good things too!), just wanted to say that about the 512MB RAM, that's just what I heard from the SE people at the launch event, it's not confirmed.

Looks like most issues could be fixed with a software update though, which is great!
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Cause I use Sketchup and Archicad a lot for my work ;) Couldn't live without this thing. If only it worked for Revit, then I could die happy.

Thanks for the heads up! :D

And yeah, let's keep our fingers crossed.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
**Update on the random rebooting situation:

Trying to recreate the situation by straining the CPU/GPU with apps while unplugged didn't lead to anything. At first I thought this meant it was a problem with the charger, but... now the phone is rebooting by itself more and more often regardless of whether it's charging or not.

I've noticed it restart on the desk next to me twice when I wasn't using it. So far its rebooted twice in the first 2 days, and three times in the last 12 hours.

Factory reset didn't help, nor did trying different micro USB cables.

No reply from SE yet.
[Xperia Arc General] refract:
The prices you listed.. wow, they're actually rather cheap. Was x10 cheaper or more expensive on Docomo when it just got released ?

edit

Regarding the restarting situation, it's probably a software issue ( not probably, definitely ), as my x8 kept restarting itself all the time when I plugged it via USB cable, due to a something as simple as a specific notification sound.
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
I don't remember the exact price, but the X10 was around 70,000 JPY with the same 2 year contract, and around 40,000 JPY for existing customers.

Docomo has done a good job bringing down the prices for it's smartphones recently though; the Arc is inline with the Galaxy S, and the other recently released android phone, the NEC Media S is even cheaper. KDDI au (their biggest competitor) is notably more expensive, with their handsets all still at around 60,000 JPY.

I hope you're right about the restarting being a software issue, for SE's sake. Or else they're gonna have a lot of recalls on their hands. :D
[Xperia Arc General] samven582:
Does your phone have any dead pixels or dust?
[Xperia Arc General] SBS:
Given everything that's happened lately, I haven't updated that post yet, but I guess it doesn't matter so much since Docomo isn't unlocking for another week.

Anyways, the monthly support WILL NOT be cancelled :) if you simply unlock but will, obviously, if you cancel your contract. So it is going to be expensive to pickup a phone in Japan and take it elsewhere, but not if you use it in Japan and want it unlocked for when going abroad.

Price will be 3000 and change (yen) for the service fee and you'll have to take it to a Docomo shop.

link to press release in Japanese here explaining all we know so far, though this is focused on the other end - bringing phones to Japan for use on Docomo.

Cheers. :cool:
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
None that I can find (I assume you mean dust inside the screen).

Great info as always ;) Thanks.
[Xperia Arc General] Lakitu:
A user on twitter had the same issue. He noticed it happened twice in one day. link to tweet
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
It seems to be completely random from what I've seen. If you do a search for "xperia arc リブート" on twitter it comes up with a whole bunch of people with the same problem.
[Xperia Arc General] hampan:
Please note that the arc that is available in Japan is not the same as the ones we will get in the rest of the world. Not even the same firmware. Let's hope the reboot glitch is isolated to the jp model.
[Xperia Arc General] se_dude:
No it isnt. In fact it is a standard Gingerbread issue. The Nexus S reboots like anything and that is supposed to be the google phone. Google Nexus S and reboots and you will find a barrage of issues linking to the same.
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
It could also be the SD-card. Many people with similar problems formatted their mem card from a card reader and that fixed it!
[Xperia Arc General] Wishmaster89:
It seems that random reboot bug is fixed in version 2.3.3(according to the information I found on engadget) so now we have to wait for SE to prepare android 2.3.3 for their xperia phones. Hopefully it'll happen sooner than later.

Fortunately X10 will be updated to version 2.3.3 so now random reboot bug.
[Xperia Arc General] Ambroos:
2.3.3 will come pretty soon, should release in a few weeks, probably together with the Neo.
[Xperia Arc General] Ravanelli:
I really wanna swap my 9700 with this Arc but what I'm concern the most about it is battery life. With your "medium usage"

it last only 11 hours, 14 hours at most.

Can u tell us how long it can last with data traffic always on, sync every email, FB notifications, and chatting for the most of the time? No gaming......

My 9700 can stand about 2 days in that condition, I turn it off at night.:D
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
I tried formatting the card after reading your post, and so good so far! I'll post if anything changes. Can't really predict when it might reboot.

Hope it comes soon then :cool:

I'll give it a try, but I can't see it improving much.
[Xperia Arc General] Ravanelli:
Can u do it only on 2G, not 3G??
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
So, wifi only? I'll get back to you. :cool:
[Xperia Arc General] senaps:
well,i think the battery is the most important....

if we do not turn off the gps and wi-fi, and listen to music,(just like what we do with iphone 4 or 3gs) how much it will be alive?!

and i'm sure you wont test phone to being under bus like x10!!so i dont ask that, but what do you think yourself about it?!
[Xperia Arc General] kaisan1:
Howz the battery consumption?? Is it better than x10?
[Xperia Arc General] Ravanelli:
I mean GSM only, not WCDMA:D
[Xperia Arc General] MJ_QaT:
@Shutterspark

Can you check if the Arc can handle a class 10 SD card? whether 16 or 32..

I know that it's compatible with class 6...

Don't go and buy one to check it out though :p

If you can't that's ok, just waiting for the device to arrive and I'll test that myself on both Arc and Play
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
Wait, so you want me to test the battery life with heavy data usage... but without a data connection? :)

It'll last longer than the X10 if only because it runs 2.3 rather than 2.1. I don't have much experience using the X10 but it definitely lasts longer. How much? I couldn't say exactly.

I usually leave GPS on anyway, but since I don't use many apps that make use of it the GPS battery consumption should be negligible. I don't usually use wifi either, because there aren't many free wifi spots in Japan and I come and go all the time :cool: I do however listen to music a lot over my bluetooth headset and it can go for hours losing only 5-10% with full 3G data connectivity.

The screen is consistently by far the biggest drain on the battery, so from my testing so far, as long as your screen is off most of the time the battery life is decent provided your 3G connection isn't constantly active e.g. real time polling apps.

I'm still doing the test for wifi-only with a lot of chatting/emailing/syncing, but so far so good.

I'm afraid I don't have a class 10 card to test, so I can't help there :D

I did the next best thing and called the shop to ask though, and the shop keeper said it -should-, but she didn't sound too sure and neither was her manager. So... verdict: inconclusive :rolleyes:

**Update: Found this.
[Xperia Arc General] refract:
Btw, what is the size of the memory card that is shipped with the device, 8 or 16 gb ?
[Xperia Arc General] jerrytea:
I believe GSM does not exist in Japan. Correct me if I'm wrong.
[Xperia Arc General] Ravanelli:
Ohhh I c....my mistake. lol :D
[Xperia Arc General] Shutterspark:
This has been answered before, but it would seem that in most countries it is shipping with a 16gb class 2 MicroSD. It will likely differ in some locations so you'll want to check with your carrier.

Well, almost. GSM exists here but it's not employed by any of the 3 major carriers. Docomo for example used to use a proprietary 2G network which they should be shutting down entirely soon (within months).

Softbank (one of the major carriers) and others run a GSM network for their roaming partnerships with foreign carriers.

Just over 16hrs on Wi-Fi only, chatting for a total of 5+ hours over GTalk/eBuddy/Skype and with Facebook/Twitter/Gmail/News/Weather etc. syncing on. No games or any other applications.

Again it's the screen using most of the battery (63% infact). I had the screen at about 40% brightness, if you can put up with it being dimmer you can probably squeeze a couple more hours out of it.